Infrastructure & Urban Development

The World Economic Forum convenes an unparalleled number of world leaders from industry, government, academia and civil society. The Infrastructure & Urban Development Industry Partnership provides an extremely fertile ground to reflect upon some of the most pressing economic issues related to the sector and on aligning the community’s interests with the global, regional and industry agenda. Many of the ideas and solutions proposed by the community serve as stepping stones, enabling the agenda to move forward in a swift manner. The impact of this work is a direct result of a cooperative process with leaders from government, civil society and the private sector.

The community aims to serve as a forward thinking, valuable, and internationally recognized partner for all stakeholders involved in the sectors of engineering & construction, urban development and real estate while shaping the agenda to create real opportunities to convene leaders, raise global awareness, conceive frameworks, and prepare actionable recommendations in the context of improving the state of the world.

InteractionsIndustry Partners of the Infrastructure & Urban Development community are provided with opportunities for significant interaction with government leaders, experts and leaders from other industries – ranging from financial services, investors, mining, chemicals, oil & gas to utilities, and more. The Forum builds customized sessions at the request of Partners; helps orchestrate bilateral meetings with public figures; and structures on-going initiatives to convene these diverse leaders around common agendas.

Industry meetingsThe Infrastructure & Urban Development community holds several signature meetings specifically to serve the Engineering & Construction and Real Estate sectors throughout the year. Examples include the annual Governors meeting, a CEO only gathering at the Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland; the Urban Development & Infrastructure Summit at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China; and private sessions held on the occasion of the Forum’s regional summits in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and beyond.

Thought leadershipThe 80 Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum engage the foremost experts and industry leaders to deliver insights on major topics. The Councils on Infrastructure and on Urbanization focus specifically on generating insights relevant for the Infrastructure & Urban Development community, which help industry leaders strategize around future trends and make key business decisions.

Global Strategic Infrastructure InitiativeInfrastructure development is a key economic and social driver of sustained growth and acts as a true enabler for a country’s competitiveness. However, infrastructure development itself will not drive economic growth unless it is fully aligned with the country’s economic, social, environmental and competitiveness priorities.

It is essential for both public and private sectors to address two fundamental questions for their strategic infrastructure projects, namely:

how should they prioritise infrastructure projects to create the greatest impact?

how should they prepare, deliver and operate the selected projects most efficiently and effectively?

Based on the questions above, the Initiative aims to address key issues identified throughout the project cycle, as well as on specific regions and topics, in order to provide more comprehensive and deeper understanding of infrastructure projects today. The main work of the Initiative include:

African Strategic InfrastructureThe African Strategic Infrastructure Initiative was formally kicked-off in Johannesburg on July 9, 2012 with the creation of the Business Working Group (BWG). With its mission to define a process to accelerate the implementation of sustainable and efficient infrastructure in Africa, using PIDA “Priority Action Plan” (PAP) as a basis, the Initiative aims to• Establish a best practice framework (for PPPs, financing, and capacity building) for improved infrastructure delivery in Africa, • Enable the public sector to benefit from objective, transparent and informed input from the private sector, as well as help inform and shape policies and • Ultimately provide a model to be replicated across Africa and other continents, to create an enabling environment for private sector involvement in infrastructure

Today the BWG consists of 35 stakeholders from both private & public sectors with an interest in African infrastructure development, and is a unique and dedicated platform for global and African business leaders to provide business input to Africa’s infrastructure priorities. The initiative is led under the guidance of the African Union Commission and NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency by the World Economic Forum in partnership with the African Development Bank

The Future of Urban Development Initiative

The Future of Urban Development Initiative helps cities around the world to address major urban challenges and adopt new urban development models. The initiative brings together governments, companies and experts to rethink urban challenges through 2 core activities:

• Champion City ModelSteering and Advisory Board Members work hand-in-hand with leaders of select cities to address specific urban challenges, outlined by the cities. A 7-step model guides development of tailored strategies and helps to catalyse implementation. Tianjin, China served as the inaugural Champion City in 2012

• Hyperconnected CitiesBoard members will work with the Forum’s IT and TC communities to explore the implications of tech and big data for cities

Strategic Dialog on Transformations of the Real Estate IndustryA strategic dialogue series, which was initiated in 2012 and 2013, will be continued and deepened in 2014. The discussion is led by international experts of the Forum’s Real Estate community to address emergent issues on future mega trends, which will be able to disrupt and transform the industry in the years ahead. The focus will be in the areas of globalization, international finance, technological innovation and real estate regulation and governance.

The Disaster Resource Partnership (DRP): The E&C Industry as Corporate Global Citizen - DRP is an international alliance of Engineering & Construction (E&C) Community companies supported by the World Economic Forum. Its objective is to develop a cross-sector, professional, and accountable humanitarian response to disasters that has the ability to scale up to meet growing demands. (DRP report)

IU PACI – Building Foundations Against Corruption

This collaborative project between the Infrastructure & Urban Development (IU) community and the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) of the World Economic Forum seeks to further industry-wide engagement on anti-corruption solutions in a way that will benefit both businesses and public organizations. The project aims at recommending anti-corruption strategies that will increase customer and shareholder value for companies that commit to those strategies. Commenced in 2014 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, it brings together leading Infrastructure & Urban Development companies and endeavours to foster dialogue with governments, including authorities on a local level, as many infrastructure projects are related to local administrations.